Image: Leo Tolstoy. Wikimedia Commons.

Leo Tolstoy was one of the writers whose ideas influenced Gandhi during his South African years. Their correspondence in 1909 and 1910 connected Gandhi’s political experiments with Tolstoy’s ideas about nonviolence and moral responsibility.

Why Gandhi wrote to Tolstoy

Gandhi admired Tolstoy’s writings and sought his views on the Indian resistance movement in South Africa. Gandhi’s letters discussed nonviolent resistance and the moral basis of opposing unjust laws.

Tolstoy’s response

Tolstoy responded positively to Gandhi’s campaign and wrote about the power of moral resistance to violence and injustice.

Tolstoy Farm

Gandhi and Hermann Kallenbach named their South African settlement Tolstoy Farm in honour of the Russian writer.

An intellectual relationship, not a political alliance

The relationship was primarily an exchange of ideas through letters. Gandhi developed his own political method in response to Indian conditions in South Africa, even while drawing inspiration from Tolstoy.

Why the correspondence matters

The letters provide a direct window into the intellectual development of Gandhi’s ideas shortly before his return to India.

The Gandhi Heritage Portal preserves letters between Gandhi and Tolstoy, while recent scholarship has also examined the correspondence in detail. citeturn0search1turn0news12

Read NewsNationOnline’s Tolstoy Farm feature.

Imran Siddiqui

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